Scandalous Mercy

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 16th chapter.

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Jesus also said to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

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And he called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

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And the manager said to himself, what shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?

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I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when

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I am removed from management people may receive me into their houses. So summoning his master's servants one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master?

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He said, a hundred measures of oil. He said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, how much do you owe?

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He said, a hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, take your bill and write eighty. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons of the world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

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And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Alright, this has got to be one of the most scandalous parables that Jesus tells, and it's best to unpack it so we can understand what's going on here.

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How on earth can Christ commend a dishonest manager? Well, you'll note in properly understanding the parables, it's necessary to figure out who's who, right?

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So let's make it very clear. Jesus is the rich guy who has the manager, and you are the dishonest manager.

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So am I, by the way. That's where we all fit. I know it seems a little bit odd, but work with me here.

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I know your parents. You're sitting there going, well have you really met my parents? The answer is,

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I don't need to. I know you come from some pretty sketchy stock. Let me explain. Our first parents,

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Adam and Eve, they were thieving gardeners. I mean, they were put in the Garden of Eden. They had one job.

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They were to basically be stewards of the Garden of Eden, and one commandment not ten like we have.

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They had one commandment. You shall not eat of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you.

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You get the idea. You shall not eat of it. The day you eat of it, you will surely die. And what did they do?

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They ate of it. It wasn't their tree to eat from. They were told not to eat from it. And each and every one of us, we come from those two parents.

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We're all, how do the kids say it now? Sus. We're all sus. Right? But that's the truth.

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And so you'll note here talking about wasting possessions. You came into this life naked.

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You're going to leave this life without being able to take any possessions with you. It's best to understand that you are merely stewards of God's good gifts.

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God has given you a home. God has given you a car. God has given you money so that you can pay your bills, pay for groceries, and things like this.

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And how many of us can say without blushing from guilt that we have perfectly stewarded the good gifts that God has given us?

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I can't. Neither can you. Each and every one of us in one way or another has wasted

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God's possessions, has wasted His resources, has wasted the time that He's given us, even squandered the relationships that God has brought into our life.

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We're all just horrible stewards and managers of God's good creation.

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And for this, we rightly deserve to be condemned. Note, I'm including myself in this mix.

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But here's where things get pretty scandalous. Let me explain. So as the story goes,

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Jesus says there was a rich man, that's who Jesus is, who had a manager. Charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

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So he called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

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And the manager said to himself, what shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me?

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Now, as somebody who's worked in the corporate world, something's off here. I mean really, really, really off.

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So when I worked in the corporate world, I worked in the corporate world, I came up through the marketing ranks.

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Director of marketing, VP, CEO, things like this. This is what I would do. And there's a standard procedure when you're going to fire somebody.

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And the standard procedure pretty much goes like this. You call security, you show up at the person's cubicle, and then you inform them that they have been sacked.

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And you give them their final paycheck, and you give them a couple of boxes and say security's going to stay here while you clean your desk out.

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And then they're going to escort you out the door and we need your key fob so that you can't get back into the building.

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This is standard procedure. What's going on here? This rich man tells his manager,

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I'm going to sack you. There's going to be a reckoning. And then doesn't take away the keys.

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Leaves him able to do business in his behalf. This is more of a hint that this has to do with Christ.

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Because you'll note that each and every one of us, we've been put on notice by God's word, by the law.

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We have been put on notice. We even confessed it in the creed that Christ is returning in glory to judge the living and the dead.

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And that everybody is going to have to give an accounting to Christ. Right? But Christ has just given us fair warning.

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We continue to be stewards of his good gifts. The same way that this dishonest manager also is a steward of this rich man's good gifts.

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So what does he do? How does he escape this terrible fate?

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And by the way, we don't have to worry about begging or having to dig ditches like this fellow was worried about.

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When Christ returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, those who do not measure up, well, they have an eternity to look forward to in the lake of fire.

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So you'll note that Christ here is kind of underplaying the plight that this guy is in. But in this guy's way of thinking, the worst thing that could happen to him is that he has to actually work with his body.

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He goes from being a white collar worker to being a blue collar worker, and that's just too much for him to bear. And so how does he avert this fate?

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Well, he comes up with quite the interesting scheme. And this is where it's a good idea to recognize that this parable is told in the context of an ancient

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Near Eastern honor culture. We Americans do not have a very firm grasp on the concept of honor and how important it is.

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We dishonor people left and right, and do so quite sinfully,

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I would note. It's kind of in our DNA. We don't have a thing in our body where we actually show respect for monarchy or politicians.

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It goes all the way back to the American Revolution, if you think about it. But all of that being said, in an honor culture, this is quite quite the scheme that this guy has come up with.

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What does he decide he's going to do? He's going to make his boss look like the most generous, the most kind, the most merciful, and the most gracious dude ever.

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How so? Well, he goes to all the people who owe him things, and he asks them how much they owe, and he takes debts, and he slashes them in half, or takes away a portion of it.

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So he says to one fellow, how much do you owe my master? And he says, well, I owe 100 measures of this, of oil.

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Quick, take your bill and write down 50. Now think about how smart this is, because now the master is going to have to come to grips with it.

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Can the master come to the fellow who had his bill reduced, say to him, listen,

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I was going to sack the guy and I know he's making me look good, but you still owe me.

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You still owe me the whole amount. There's no way he can do that, right? So what has he done?

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He has made his master look like the most amazing fellow ever. Let me ask you a question.

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Isn't that exactly what Jesus is like? You think about it for a second here.

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Isn't he not loving, kind, merciful, forgiving, patient, actually cares about people and their well -being?

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That's Jesus to a T. In fact, this guy is banking on what?

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The good, gracious nature of his master. And by his actions, he's going out and letting the whole town know how amazing this master is.

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Because you imagine the talk of the town. Did you hear what happened? That rich fellow, I owed him 100 measures of oil and he reduced my bill down to 50.

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What an amazing thing. And that steward of his, that manager, oh, he's just the best person ever.

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Right? But here's where it kind of comes into play then. That's exactly what

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Jesus is like, except for one exception. When Jesus forgives you of all of your sin, all of your mismanagement, all of the debt that you have racked up that you owe

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God. One version of the Lord's prayer goes, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

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Debt is a good way of talking about sin. Does Jesus slash your bill in half?

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Does that sound like Christ? No, not at all. Does Jesus take a third of it off?

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Not even close. How many of your sins did Jesus die for on the cross? All of them.

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How much of the debt did he pay for you? All of it. And so you'll note here, this is the scandalous bit.

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And I assure you that in heaven, there are forgiven lowlifes like you wouldn't believe.

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We're talking really, really sketchy, sus people, including, well, farmers, and cobblers, and people who used to work in the medical industry.

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Lawyers and accountants. There's even airline pilots in heaven.

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Can you believe this? There are guys who work in business development, in heaven, right now, forgiven by Christ.

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There are hairdressers, and retirees, and people. What a sketchy lot.

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And someday, someday, when I arrive at the pearly gates and Christ welcomes me into his kingdom and shows me my heavenly and eternal abode, oh man,

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I can tell you that the buzz is going to be going on. Because here's the thing. The people who are there now, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the drug addicts, they're going to see me coming in and go, oh my goodness,

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Christ is letting anyone in now. Anyone. He's even letting Rose, bro.

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And that's the scandal of this all. You see, the cross, the forgiveness of sins, is that scandalous.

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So scandalous that Christ commends this dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

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And are we not shrewd in averting the wrath of God by trusting in the mercy of Christ?

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You see, and like I said, Christ doesn't forgive some of our debt. He forgives all of it.

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And yeah, you can legitimately say of yourself, you are not a good steward of God's resources.

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If you were to have to really, truly give an accounting, oh man, you would be in trouble.

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But the book of Colossians talks about things in a most amazing way. In Colossians, it says that God the

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Father has delivered us from the dominion of darkness. That God the Father is the one who has qualified each of us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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And then in Colossians chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, it legitimately says that we

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God has made us alive together with Christ and has forgiven us of all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

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This he has set aside nailing it to the cross. Why? It's because Christ has paid the debt for all of your mismanagement of his good creation.

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And he has qualified you so that you would never have to worry about not being welcome into heavenly abodes.

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And so that being said, there is a second level to our parable. And it's important to note the second level to our parable deals with actually with the concept of money itself.

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Because note that Christ says that I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings.

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Seems like kind of an enigmatic statement, but think of it this way. Our attitude towards the good money that God provides for us, yes?

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God is the one who's given you the abilities so that you can have the job that you have, so that you can earn the paycheck that you earn and we are commanded as Christians, this is a

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New Testament command, that we are to work with our hands diligently to provide for our own needs and we are also required by Christ to set aside a small portion of what we earn so that we can help meet the needs of those who are down and out, who are poor or not able to pay their bills.

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And so you'll note here, I'm not saying we're supposed to set aside a portion of our money in order to tithe. That's not a

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New Testament command. We are instructed to set aside a portion of our money in order to help people meet their needs.

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So Christ is making it very clear when it comes to the resources that God has given us a portion of that must be used to help people so that their financial debts can be lowered or alleviated so that they can see the gospel in action.

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And the idea then is that we don't earn our salvation in this manner. Christ has earned it for us and because of that we can now have an open hand and be generous just like Christ is generous.

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Giving to the poor is a visible manifestation of the forgiveness of sins.

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And those who have been in financial binds and straits and have been not able to pay their bills they feel, well, that they are in captivity, that they have no means to help themselves out of the problems that they are in.

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And so in this way when we use unrighteous wealth to help others to show the graciousness of God it leaves a mark, a good one.

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It's, like I said, a visible manifestation of the gospel itself. And in this regard, note then that each and every one of us, we forgive because we have been forgiven.

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We pay others' debts because our debts have been paid.

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And I find it ironic in this week's readings that the gospel is not in the gospel text.

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The gospel is actually in our Old Testament text. 2 Samuel note then talking about how

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God, what His disposition is towards us. 2 Samuel 22 verse 26 states,

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You know, we forgive because we are forgiven. And is this not what we pray in the Lord's Prayer? As we forgive those who trespass against us.

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God shows Himself as blameless. Note the past tense.

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And this is what Christ has done for you. He has shown you mercy. In Christ, He has made you blameless.

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And by the shed blood of Christ, who has suffered in your place on the cross and paid your debt in full, you have now been purified.

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But with those who are crooked, with those who are arrogant, God makes Himself to seem tortuous.

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God saves a humble people, but God's eyes are on the haughty with the purpose of bringing them down.

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The author here says, You are my lamp, O Yahweh, and my God lightens my darkness.

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For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.

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This God, His way is perfect, and the word of Yahweh always proves true. He's a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.

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So take comfort. You have taken refuge in Christ, and He is your great forgiver of all of your debts and your mismanagement.

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I can think of no greater example of somebody mismanaging God's good gifts than I could think of King David.

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If you think about it, know the story of King David. He starts off as a humble shepherd boy, right? And God calls him from shepherding, has him anointed as the king of Israel, although the current king was still quite alive and well.

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And God delivered him from all of the attempts to take his life and to kill him, and finally establishes his kingdom.

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And no sooner is David's kingdom established by God, he is the king of all of Israel. What does he do?

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He squanders the good kingdom that God has given him to steward by, well, casting his eye on the wife of Uriah the

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Hittite, Bathsheba. He committed adultery with her, impregnated her, and then when found out that she was pregnant and that he was the father, he killed, murdered

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Uriah the Hittite. I can think of no greater example of somebody squandering, mismanaging the things that God has put into his care, even abusing those whom

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God has put him over to care for and to minister to. And yet, when confronted with his sin, what does

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God do for David? Does he say, off to hell with you, you've mismanaged my kingdom, how dare you?

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No, God forgives him. When confronted with his sin, David says, I have sinned against the

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Lord. And then he pens these wonderful words, which are the actual psalm that is assigned for today,

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Psalm 51, where David says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, please blot out my transgressions.

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Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sins are ever before me.

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And against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that I may be justified.

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You may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

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And behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

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So purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

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Let me hear joy and gladness, and let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

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Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart,

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O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your

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Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."

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And how does God answer such a prayer? With forgiveness, mercy, pardon, and grace.

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It's very shrewd of David to cast himself on the mercy of God and show God to be merciful, after he, a miserable manager, mismanaged the stewardship that was given to him by God.

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And you and I are no better than David. We're all just as sinful and wicked. Don't believe me?

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Consider our epistle text. Let me explain. The law. The law shows us our sins.

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Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10, now these things, talking about the stories that are recorded for us in the

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Old Testament, contrary to what Andy Stanley may say, we Christians need that Old Testament. Don't you dare throw it out or stop reading it.

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These things that are written in the Old Testament were written as examples for us so that we might not desire evil as they did, but that's the problem.

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If you're honest with yourself, you can legitimately focus on the fact and confess rightly that you do desire evil.

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The things that God commands, you desire. The things that God forbids, you desire.

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The things that God doesn't want you to do, you want to do. That's because we all have a sinful nature.

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And so these things are written so that we may not desire them. And first thing on the list, do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written.

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The people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play and you sit there and go, well I attend a good faithful church.

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How could I possibly be an idolater? Ah yeah, that first commandment, you shall have no other gods, that's a little bit of a thorny one here because you're going to know every other sin flows from that one.

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Every time you break any of the other ten commandments, you've also broken the first.

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So when you are trusting in anything other than God to meet your needs, you are an idolater.

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You can turn anything into idolatry and I know that in the past I've taken a swipe at things like Etsy and stuff like this.

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This week I'll take a swipe at myself. You know me, I like to photograph things. I like posting my photographs on Instagram.

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And you know it's really tempting to turn those little heart emojis that people put on my photographs into a type of idolatry.

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Oh my day can't possibly be that bad because I got 112 likes on that photograph that I took the other day at the museum, right?

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Ah yes, anything can be an idol. And it's this that we must all take into consideration and confess rightly when we do so.

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Photography can be an idol. Drugs, alcohol, sex, money, power, ah, shopping sprees can be an idol.

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And there are people who go on binge shopping sprees in order to make them feel better because of the stresses in life and that is idolatry.

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You'll note we're all capable and we're all guilty of such things. Paul then says this, we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23 ,000 fell in a single day.

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Let's be blunt, since Christ in Matthew chapter 5 takes, well sexual immorality and ramps it up to 11, each and every one of us we're guilty in this regard.

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Because if you even look at another person lustfully, you've already committed adultery with that person.

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That being the case, I don't think any of us can say that we're all perfectly sexually pure, not a single one of us.

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And we must not put Christ to the test, each and every one of us do this regularly and then also none of us should grumble but how many of us do?

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So taking a look at that little list, how do y 'all work that out? You looking good?

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No, neither am I. And so you'll note we, like I said, are all that horrible manager who has to give an account who's been told to pack up his stuff and bring the accounting books and have, well,

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Christ look them over. But because Christ has bled and died for our sins, he has cancelled the record of debt and Christ doesn't see in us anymore because of what he's done all of our sin, our debt, and our mismanagement.

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He's paid all of that for us. He's taken care of it all by bleeding and dying for your sins and mine on the cross.

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And instead we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and we are, well, promised that we would be the stewards and those who rule and reign with Christ in the world to come.

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All of this because Christ has qualified us. He's the one who is gracious and kind.

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And I would note, I have this wonderful job. Week after week after week after week, you come in and confess that you are by nature sinful, unclean, sinned against God in thought, word, and deed.

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And I get to see the debt that you've racked up week after week. And one of the greatest joys that I have, and it is a joy, is to announce to you that all of your debts are cancelled because of Christ.

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So yeah, you're all miserable managers. So am I. And we deserve so much worse than what we're getting.

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But rather than getting what we deserve, Christ took that for us. So take heart. You will be welcomed by Christ into eternal dwellings because of what

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He has done for you. It's scandalous if you think about it and yet at the same time it's wonderful.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church We thank you for your support.

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